BBC News:John Laing - builder of M1 and Severn Bridge - opens archive

[c2R]

Some great photos:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-51034911

[JohnnyMo]

More ( ie 481 ) photo's here That is with the filter set to motorway.

[Bryn666]

Excellent photos - some corkers of the M1 being widened south of the then M10 in 1982.

[trickstat]

Excellent photos - some corkers of the M1 being widened south of the then M10 in 1982.

Considering that I was about 14 during these works, lived in Herts and travelled quite a lot as a passenger via the then Watford Bypass (later M25) to various places plus going to Watford itself, I don't actually remember these widening works. Living in Stevenage we didn't tend to go on the M1 south of Luton but we would have crossed it quite often.

[montyburns56]

The Guardian has also featured some pictures, but I found this one the most interesting as it shows a petrol station on the M1 in 1959 that has a choice of fuel brands. Was this the norm back then and if so when did motorway petrol stations switch to only selling a single brand of fuel?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ga ... res#img-21

[JohnnyMo]

The Guardian has also featured some pictures, but I found this one the most interesting as it shows a petrol station on the M1 in 1959 that has a choice of fuel brands. Was this the norm back then and if so when did motorway petrol stations switch to only selling a single brand of fuel?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ga ... res#img-21

Yes it was, I think it was sometime in the 70's but not sure. As my family did have a car we didn't use motorways very often.

[boliston]

quite impressive picture quality published - all too often archives are low res but not here it seems

[Chris5156]

The Guardian has also featured some pictures, but I found this one the most interesting as it shows a petrol station on the M1 in 1959 that has a choice of fuel brands. Was this the norm back then and if so when did motorway petrol stations switch to only selling a single brand of fuel?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ga ... res#img-21

Yes, in the late 1950s it was thought that motorists were exceptionally loyal to their preferred brand of fuel and might not stop if it wasn't available at a particular service area, which would cause them to run out of fuel before reaching the next one. To make sure that wasn't an issue, early service areas were obliged to sell a range of major brands.

[Bryn666]

The Guardian has also featured some pictures, but I found this one the most interesting as it shows a petrol station on the M1 in 1959 that has a choice of fuel brands. Was this the norm back then and if so when did motorway petrol stations switch to only selling a single brand of fuel?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ga ... res#img-21

Yes, in the late 1950s it was thought that motorists were exceptionally loyal to their preferred brand of fuel and might not stop if it wasn't available at a particular service area, which would cause them to run out of fuel before reaching the next one. To make sure that wasn't an issue, early service areas were obliged to sell a range of major brands.

That makes more sense than my theory that it was to prevent a single company dominating fuel forecourts across the land and thus a panic in Whitehall as it's the sort of the thing you could imagine the Monopolies and Mergers Committee getting worked up about in 1959.

[montyburns56]

The Guardian has also featured some pictures, but I found this one the most interesting as it shows a petrol station on the M1 in 1959 that has a choice of fuel brands. Was this the norm back then and if so when did motorway petrol stations switch to only selling a single brand of fuel?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ga ... res#img-21

Yes, in the late 1950s it was thought that motorists were exceptionally loyal to their preferred brand of fuel and might not stop if it wasn't available at a particular service area, which would cause them to run out of fuel before reaching the next one. To make sure that wasn't an issue, early service areas were obliged to sell a range of major brands.

Right, thanks for the info!

[jedikiah]

That makes more sense than my theory that it was to prevent a single company dominating fuel forecourts across the land and thus a panic in Whitehall as it's the sort of the thing you could imagine the Monopolies and Mergers Committee getting worked up about in 1959.

Actually there were Monopolies Commission and Restrictive Practices reports into Solus Arrangements for Petrol Stations specifically for motorway services in 1956 and in general in 1965. At one time these were available online as one of the successor bodies digitised all of the main reports, but these seem to have gone in recent years. The National Archives site references these without online copies.

After branded petrol became available again in 1953 the main distributors offered petrol to retailers at a discount in return for exclusivity, plus cheap loans to develop sites. Later on the distributors progressively just bought out the original owners. In the 1950s these were Shell Mex & BP (including Power and National), Esso, Regent (Texaco / Chevron), Vacuum Oil Co (later Mobil) and Petrofina.

[Big L]

Yes, in the late 1950s it was thought that motorists were exceptionally loyal to their preferred brand of fuel and might not stop if it wasn't available at a particular service area, which would cause them to run out of fuel before reaching the next one. To make sure that wasn't an issue, early service areas were obliged to sell a range of major brands.

The modern equivalent of the loyal customer is the business driver with a company-specific fuel card.

I'm sure I recall seeing a motorway petrol station with two companies' pumps on the forecourt, in the last 15 or so years. Corley is in my mind, but it may not be correct.

[Big L]

A 'local historian' has posted some nice pictures of the M6 Toll under construction in his blog.